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[TheGreatMightyPoo]

With regards to the countdown in the OP is it accurate?

Meaning is the Japanese Switch presentation gonna be 11 PM ET/ 8 PM PT on Thursday night?

Yes.

 

[Herb Alpert]

Just realized the presentation will be at 5AM and not 4AM as I thought before. OK, I definitely will watch this live.

 

[TheOnlyOneHeEverFeared]

sure is pretty quiet here

Nothing to talk about until Friday/more credible leaks.

 

[TLZ]

That's actually a really good design. They're large enough to be a significant presence on a shelf but small enough to make sense for a tiny cartridge. I'm moving my hope for the box design onto this.

Here's a better comparison. Just lined them all up next to each other myself. Apologies for the dark lighting, it's 1am here.

The Japanese Gamecube case there should be a bit shorter than it looks. I've moved it up a bit by mistake.

 

[RobotMoses]

But can that hardware be fit into a tablet and sold at a reasonable price while also running off a battery?

Some people seem to forget that. Yeah Nintendo is marketing this as a console but the entire system is housed in a device even smaller than an iPad. That is quite impressive. Of course Switch can't meet PS4 Pro graphical fidelity, it's less than 1/10th the size of it.

Not the point of the discussion. Personally, I love the idea of the Switch. I was just trying to shed som light on the point the guy who posted the Zelda/Horizon comparison was making (and people decided to lynch the guy before actually hearing him out). This is more about the idea that graphics doesn't really matter as long as the gameplay is great, and that Nintendo skipping the PS2/PS3 graphical leap has been frustrating for some Nintendo fans.

It raises a lot of interesting questions. If Nintendo stayed in the "graphics game", would they still be around (without all of the Wii money), how would their games be, would the Switch even exist if they still made the Wii, but not Wii U, but rather GameCube2?

 

[Vanillalite]

Yes.

Thanks!

Keeping track of what's happening when is my only downfall of all the Switch shit dropping this week. LoL

 

[TheGreatMightyPoo]

Not the point of the discussion. Personally, I love the idea of the Switch. I was just trying to shed som light on the point the guy who posted the Zelda/Horizon comparison was making (and people decided to lynch the guy before actually hearing him out). This is more about the idea that graphics doesn't really matter as long as the gameplay is great, and that Nintendo skipping the PS2/PS3 graphical leap has been frustrating for some Nintendo fans.

It raises a lot of interesting questions. If Nintendo stayed in the "graphics game", would they still be around (without all of the Wii money), how would their games be, would the Switch even exist if they still made the Wii, but not Wii U, but rather GameCube2?

He compared a non playable cutscene gif to a playable still shot cherry picked from Hell.
It was an awful comparison, hard to hear someone out with a blatant agenda.

 

[The Artisan]

I would kill for Ni No Kuni II port...

buy a ps4 instead, that way no one has to die

LOL

 

[Scrawnton]

Not the point of the discussion. Personally, I love the idea of the Switch. I was just trying to shed som light on the point the guy who posted the Zelda/Horizon comparison was making (and people decided to lynch the guy before actually hearing him out). This is more about the idea that graphics doesn't really matter as long as the gameplay is great, and that Nintendo skipping the PS2/PS3 graphical leap has been frustrating for some Nintendo fans.

It raises a lot of interesting questions. If Nintendo stayed in the "graphics game", would they still be around (without all of the Wii money), how would their games be, would the Switch even exist if they still made the Wii, but not Wii U, but rather GameCube2?

I think Nintendo would be down for the count if they released a GameCube 2 to combat the PS4 and Xbox One. With wii they moved a completely different direction and, in my opinion, they're still moving they're own distraction with Switch. They seem to be going over after their handheld/console market while also getting those people that game on tablets and phones. I doubt Nintendo cares much about stealing people away from Xbox or PlayStation.

I think Nintendo wanted to make the Switch after the Wii but the tech wasn't there yet. I think they knew going in that Wii U was a temporary measure. We never ever really seemed to have gotten a full 100% effort from Nintendo on the Wii U. Every game seemed less grandiose than their Wii counterparts.

 

[RobotMoses]

We'll have to eventually agree to disagree from here.
I'll choose Twilight Princess as example: Had the Wii, as you said before, not been Nintendo 'pausing', it would've looked pretty much exactly like the HD remaster of 2016.
And I think it's very fair to say that the opinion of quite a margin within Nintendo-GAF would not praise this game that much more or find it any less unappealing for other than purely technical reasons.
I for sure don't like the remaster that much more than the original, it's still just a great game.
I don't doubt for one second that you just feel different about that, and that's absolutely fine of course. But on a grander scale, I'd even argue that rather more of total actual consumers see it my way, but that would be totally worth discussing in a well-managed, separate thread on general gaming.

I don't think Twilight Princess is the best example, as it's a Gamecube game.

I just noticed that people are seriously trying to make arguments about Zelda? I don't understand the notion that Nintendo's first-party developers are prisoners of weak technology who really want to make BoTW look like the Witcher 3. If Nintendo's own studios were really struggling that much with their technology, we wouldn't see consoles like Wii/Wii-U/Switch. They had a hard enough time pumping out HD games for the Wii-U...

That's not the point of the discussion. No one is saying they should make Zelda look like the Witcher 3. Just because the hardware the game is being developed for is more powerful, doesn't mean that it needs to look realistic. BotW on the WiiU looks muddy, blurry, faded and runs pretty bad. If it were running on hardware, lets say equivalent to the PS4, it could look crisp, have more details, better textures, better effects, models, draw distance, etc. etc. No need to change the art style.

 

[Milly Osworth]

85 hours to go!!!

 

[BowieZ]

85 hours to go!!!

Cool. I might be able to get through a few more Pokemon Sun routes in that time.

 

[Okami Haundo]

That's not the point of the discussion. No one is saying they should make Zelda look like the Witcher 3. Just because the hardware the game is being developed for is more powerful, doesn't mean that it needs to look realistic. BotW on the WiiU looks muddy, blurry, faded and runs pretty bad. If it were running on hardware, lets say equivalent to the PS4, it could look crisp, have more details, better textures, better effects, models, draw distance, etc. etc. No need to change the art style.

Ah... I gotya. I'd argue that BoTW could have similiar improvements if it were designed from the ground up for the Switch instead of starting on Wii-U. I'm no developer, but I don't imagine a game designed for Wii-U could just automatically look and run better on better hardware. Wouldn't it have to be designed with that some kind of scaling in mind?

 

[RobotMoses]

He compared a non playable cutscene gif to a playable still shot cherry picked from Hell.
It was an awful comparison, hard to hear someone out with a blatant agenda.

We all know what Horizon looks like. Let's assume that it was a crappy comparison on purpose. As a Nintendo fan, I have no problem basing a discussion on it. BotW has it's problems. Those blurry textures are there (Nintendo even posted that official screenshot on the mountain with the abysmal mountain textures). Use those points he made, however annoying posters might find them, and base the discussion around them. Am I the only one who finds the topic interesting?

I think Nintendo would be down for the count if they released a GameCube 2 to combat the PS4 and Xbox One. With wii they moved a completely different direction and, in my opinion, they're still moving they're own distraction with Switch. They seem to be going over after their handheld/console market while also getting those people that game on tablets and phones. I doubt Nintendo cares much about stealing people away from Xbox or PlayStation.

I think Nintendo wanted to make the Switch after the Wii but the tech wasn't there yet. I think they knew going in that Wii U was a temporary measure. We never ever really seemed to have gotten a full 100% effort from Nintendo on the Wii U. Every game seemed less grandiose than their Wii counterparts.

I agree. I do, however, find some of the stuff Nintendo did with their games on the WiiU very impressive. I just feel that it's such a shame that they didn't do it earlier.

 

[LordRaptor]

I figured people would have learned after Wind Waker was announced that Nintendo has no interest in pursuing hyper-realistic graphics. But here we are seventeen years later and people are comparing bullshots of a game made to look super realistic with an unflattering shot of actual gameplay of a cartoony stylized game.

And the end result is that something that was "WOW TEH GRAFFIX!" 17 years ago looks like crap today, and WW still looks visually pleasing.

 

[RobotMoses]

Ah... I gotya. I'd argue that BoTW could have similiar improvements if it were designed from the ground up for the Switch instead of starting on Wii-U. I'm no developer, but I don't imagine a game designed for Wii-U could just automatically look and run better on better hardware. Wouldn't it have to be designed with that some kind of scaling in mind?

Yeah, absolutely. This is what we're getting, and the Switch version of BotW looks great and looks to run much better than the Wii U version. They've probably worked their asses off making this happen.

 

[what-ok]

Ah... I gotya. I'd argue that BoTW could have similiar improvements if it were designed from the ground up for the Switch instead of starting on Wii-U. I'm no developer, but I don't imagine a game designed for Wii-U could just automatically look and run better on better hardware. Wouldn't it have to be designed with that some kind of scaling in mind?

Well, I wonder if the gamepad map was dropped in the end because of Switch portability? I think There will be some ground up for Switch in BOTW.

 

[SuperSah]

How stupid will Nintendo be to miss releasing BotW in Europe at launch?

 

[TheOnlyOneHeEverFeared]

How stupid will Nintendo be to miss releasing BotW in Europe at launch?

We don't know they are!

 

[DecoReturns]

How stupid will Nintendo be to miss releasing BotW in Europe at launch?

Don't know. I live in America.

 

[what-ok]

People forget that creditable leaks are only creditable leaks. They are not concrete truths announced by Nintendo. That is the reality of it. So world wide launch of Zelda with Switch could happen.

 

[KtSlime]

Yes.

Really? The person who is doing Nintendo's site should be fired, this is the second announcement where they got the time wrong on the Japanese page. It says Friday 13th at 13pm, and no where mentions the time zone.

 

[TwistedFreeze]

We all know what Horizon looks like. Let's assume that it was a crappy comparison on purpose. As a Nintendo fan, I have no problem basing a discussion on it. BotW has it's problems. Those blurry textures are there (Nintendo even posted that official screenshot on the mountain with the abysmal mountain textures). Use those points he made, however annoying posters might find them, and base the discussion around them. Am I the only one who finds the topic interesting?

Well of course the game would look and run better on better hardware. That much is obvious to anyone The same for any game on the PS4/XB1/Switch/PS5/XB2/etc. They could all be made with high end PC hardware in mind. Thing is, it's just a redundant topic to go about

 

[shingi70]

Interesting that Gamestop won't be getting a ton of units if Gonintendos report pans out. Anyone knows what happens when you preorder a console and the Gamestop you ordered from doesn't have enough stock?

 

[SuperSah]

And question 2: MonHun XX is releasing March 18th in Japan - a coincidence?

Give me a Switch with pack-in Splatoon, Zelda day one and MonHun XX and i'll pony up the money.

i promise

 

[Okami Haundo]

Interesting that Gamestop won't be getting a ton of units if Gonintendos report pans out. Anyone knows what happens when you preorder a console and the Gamestop you ordered from doesn't have enough stock?

I think that generally, Gamestop locations only get a certain amount of pre-orders to allocate for consoles. Once they're out, that location just won't take them anymore.

I just stated in that thread that I'm betting this is a scenario where we'll get "waves" of pre-orders. If the first wave sells out, Nintendo will (hopefully) be ready and willing to allocate some more shipments. They want to keep expectations realistic but they also can't afford to have Switch units sitting on shelves after the Wii-U.

Edit: In the end, Gamestop will still be "sold out" of the Switch on day one. A few days later, they'll magically have some online-only stock in the form of the "Ultimate Nintendo fan" bundle. It'll be $799 and come with a Switch, every launch game, the new Zelda Amiibo, and a bunch of third party shit you don't want.

 

[RobotMoses]

Well of course the game would look and run better on better hardware. That much is obvious to anyone The same for any game on the PS4/XB1/Switch/PS5/XB2/etc. They could all be made with high end PC hardware in mind. Thing is, it's just a redundant topic to go about

Again, more about Nintendo "skipping" a generation in mid 2000s, "gameplay over graphics" card played by Nintendo fans, and Nintendo's business decisions regarding hardware - and less about "any game can look better on future hardware/PC".

 

[Munter]

Interesting that Gamestop won't be getting a ton of units if Gonintendos report pans out. Anyone knows what happens when you preorder a console and the Gamestop you ordered from doesn't have enough stock?

Mass hysteria.

 

[The_Lump]

Interesting that Gamestop won't be getting a ton of units if Gonintendos report pans out. Anyone knows what happens when you preorder a console and the Gamestop you ordered from doesn't have enough stock?

Angry tweets and GAF chaos.

 

[DNAbro]

Interesting that Gamestop won't be getting a ton of units if Gonintendos report pans out. Anyone knows what happens when you preorder a console and the Gamestop you ordered from doesn't have enough stock?

They might just have limited preorders.

 

[tebunker]

Interesting that Gamestop won't be getting a ton of units if Gonintendos report pans out. Anyone knows what happens when you preorder a console and the Gamestop you ordered from doesn't have enough stock?

They take your money and use it on blow and sex...

 

[Lutherian]

If you pay my PS4 i will gladly afford both. I will even pay the games myself.

Have a job

 

[TLZ]

And the end result is that something that was "WOW TEH GRAFFIX!" 17 years ago looks like crap today, and WW still looks visually pleasing.

I still find the GT image looking good.

(There's a chance you might be comparing "i" to "p" there btw so the pic looks cleaner on Zelda)

 

[Scrawnton]

They might just have limited preorders.

Good thing I'm off Friday. I'll be at Gamestop the moment they open.

And question 2: MonHun XX is releasing March 18th in Japan - a coincidence?

Give me a Switch with pack-in Splatoon, Zelda day one and MonHun XX and i'll pony up the money.

i promise

I still think Nintendo and Capcom might just be dumb enough to not have a Switch version of that game.

 

[Okami Haundo]

Good thing I'm off Friday. I'll be at Gamestop the moment they open.

Thankfully, my Gamestop opens at 10 and I have to drop my wife off at work for 8:30. I'll probably be so paranoid that I'll drive over right after dropping her off and just wait. Hoping that there aren't many/any people who plan on doing the same near me. The store is kind of small =(

 

[Donniewahlberg]

Is Youkai Watch still a thing? I would like to see Snack World and Miss Layton on Switch.

Yokai Watch is still a pretty new thing here (uk). Have spotted a fair number of the kids at my boy's school with Yokai Watch merch and Cartoon Network airs the show. I have no idea if that's majorly anecdotal or if it has done well here, but it definitely seems to be a *thing*. My boy loves it, but I kind of remove that from the equation mentally, put that down to me making an effort to get him into game stuff.

 

[LordRaptor]

I still find the GT image looking good.

(There's a chance you might be comparing "i" to "p" there btw so the pic looks cleaner on Zelda)

Gran Turismo 3 doesn't support 480p where Wind Waker does, so thats an irrelevant comparison. Wind Waker also supported PAL60.
I went with contemporary Gamespot screens as thats how the games looked at the time on their respective hardwares, because thanks to emulation most general image searches are hugely unreliable.

e:
You're also fundamentally missing the point; GT was considered "WOW!" because it was "so realistic", an ever moving goalpost dependent on modern technology and diminishing returns.
GT3 does not look "realistic" in the slightest by comparison to modern titles.

 

[Scrawnton]

Thankfully, my Gamestop opens at 10 and I have to drop my wife off at work for 8:30. I'll probably be so paranoid that I'll drive over right after dropping her off and just wait. Hoping that there aren't many/any people who plan on doing the same near me. The store is kind of small =(

I'm also gonna try to preorder on Amazon. I'd rather get the system and one game at Gamestop so I can guarantee I'll have it on launch day but I'll get a couple more games off Amazon for the prime discount.

 

[Cuningas de Häme]

Yokai Watch is neat, at least the series. Been watching it on weekends, Fox shows kind of a mini maraton every Sunday (I presume that they show YW from monday to friday).

It is funny and I kind of want the game too but I am not buying a 3DS at this point.

EDIT. The point is that I'd buy it for Switch, maybe even before Pokey-man!

 

[TwistedFreeze]

Again, more about Nintendo "skipping" a generation in mid 2000s, "gameplay over graphics" card played by Nintendo fans, and Nintendo's business decisions regarding hardware - and less about "any game can look better on future hardware/PC".

Well aside from stuff like visuals and, in Zelda's case, frame-rate, what else would've been improved? I don't think Nintendo would've made a Zelda like Breath of the Wild last gen if they had the necessary hardware as they were still going with the Ocarina of Time formula back then, despite the improvements in hardware since the N64. Same for Sm4sh, 3D World, Pikmin 3, or Mario Kart 8. I'll give you 8 Player Smash but everything else would've been doable on the Wii. For the most part, hardware hasn't been a limiting factor for them

 

[casey_contra]

Can anyone post the latest countdown gif?

 

[oti]

Yokai Watch is still a pretty new thing here (uk). Have spotted a fair number of the kids at my boy's school with Yokai Watch merch and Cartoon Network airs the show. I have no idea if that's majorly anecdotal or if it has done well here, but it definitely seems to be a *thing*. My boy loves it, but I kind of remove that from the equation mentally, put that down to me making an effort to get him into game stuff.

My cousin loves it too! I got him the watch for Christmas. He played it a day and since then, nothing. I'm just wondering about Japan. Snack World seems to be their next big thing.

 

[purseowner]

Today in OBE1 states the obvious: Platinum are working on a Switch exclusive.

 

[jxN3]

Unless they royally fuck this up on Thursday, I wouldn't be surprised if this thing is sold out everywhere, for months.

Going to pray to the Amazon gods that I get a pre-order in.

 

[Scrawnton]

Today in OBE1 states the obvious: Platinum are working on a Switch exclusive.

Bayonetta 3!!

 

[marc^o^]

Again, more about Nintendo "skipping" a generation in mid 2000s, "gameplay over graphics" card played by Nintendo fans, and Nintendo's business decisions regarding hardware - and less about "any game can look better on future hardware/PC".

What's different this time is Switch is playing console games on a handheld, and it is the new best of breed option to do that, from control, storage and graphical sides.

They produce the new high-end benchmark portable system. I admit it's in a vacuum, but it's also precisely what makes it valuable. They fill a gap, provide us the best quality game time beyond the living room. The engineering, the balance they offer seems very, very smart. Running games like Zelda in our hands will surely be a thing of beauty. You might not appreciate this prowess, I tremendously fo.

 

[purseowner]

Bayonetta 3!!

He notes that development likely started towards the end of or just after Bayonetta 2 development.

This also makes him sound like his info is sketchy and vague.

(I don't doubt that Platinum are developing an exclusive though)

 

[Herb Alpert]

I still think Nintendo and Capcom might just be dumb enough to not have a Switch version of that game.

I can see that happening. It would be so ridiculous.

 

[hotcyder]

Yes...yes I do when compared to what we are seeing on PS4/XB1 (e.g. Zelda: Breath of the Wild vs Horizon Zero on PS4).

Instead we get this...

And FYI - I am a MASSIVE Nintendo fan. I'm just getting sick and tired of Nintendo screwing us Nintendo fans over and over again by releasing under-powered hardware generation after generation.

HAHAHA. Wow, this sounds like a fair and unbiased comparison if I ever saw one. A downsampled gif with trailer action segments compared to the worst still shot you could find.

 

[outunderthestars]

Interesting that Gamestop won't be getting a ton of units if Gonintendos report pans out. Anyone knows what happens when you preorder a console and the Gamestop you ordered from doesn't have enough stock?

I imagine that initial allocations will be based on preorder volumes.